#1 Monster Fucker

[All images in this post have alt/id text if you need it or want to copy paste anything]

With no warning, Itch.io, a site where many host their indie games, comics, books and more, has started purging and shadowbanning explicit and LGBT+ works. Creators got no warning. And if they were still owed payouts from these works, Itch.io is saying they won't give them their money as they 'broke the rules'. Rules that were only just set in place, with no warning, and therefore no way for creators to try and draw out their money or delete these 'offending' works before they got banned under the new rules.

So Itch.io has been the most recent to fall to the demands of a group that's been contacting Visa and Mastercard and convincing them to threaten sites/businesses with 'stop selling what we consider to be explicit content on your sites of we'll stop allowing your site to have transactions with Visa and Mastercard'. Steam folded, and now Itchio has too. And a reminder earlier this year Gumroad also stopped allowing explicit content, further back than that Patreon banned some kinks and fetishes even if it's depicted in fiction not real life, and I don't have to explain to you guys the great Tumblr explicit content ban of 2018.

And as always remember this doesn't stop with sexually explicit work as LGBT+ stories and people are often labelled as explicit and already we're seeing works being taken off Itch.io that are about LGBT+ and especially trans stories. Other non-sexually explicit works I've seen already getting shadowbanned, delisted or deleted are SFW games featuring furries/anthros, SFW dress up games (because when you take the clothes the model is nude), and the aforementioned SFW games that include LGBT+ characters and stories.

I'm compiling here information I've seen around various social medias, mostly Bluesky, because I haven't seen all these things shared over here.

I don't personally have explicit content on itch, but I had been considering one day selling things on there and I do currently have explicit content on my Patreon, my main source of income, and am terrified that Patreon is going to fold next (if anyone knows alterative for hosting audio content behind a paid subscription service please let me know so I can start maybe making a back-up in case the worst happens). Because for me personally if Patreon goes next, it's not like I can go out and easily get another job. Not only because in general finding and getting a job is difficult enough, but I'm autistic and have chronic pain and have been constantly getting sick or new pains over the last few years and don't feel safe being trans in the UK right now and all of that combined rules me out of a lot of jobs and makes me feel unsafe to apply to any. I'm so grateful I've been able to make a community around my work, but if Patreon caves next and I just leave my SFW posts on Patreon... 10% of my Patreons are signed up to the SFW tier, 90% are signed up to the explicit tier... I know if Patreon caves I will go from someone living comfortably who's searching to move out of my parents so I can live in a safer environment to someone who can no longer even afford the rent I pay to my parents. I'll try and get an alterative found and set up in case that happens and I can only hope you guys will follow me to whatever other site I have to set up... but it feels unlikely that people will get a whole new account on a whole new payment provider just to support me on a website they might never have heard of...

But what can we do right now?

A petition you can sign (international but you do have to give your name, email, and postal/zip code):

Get calling:

Mastercard (US): 1-800-627-8372

MasterCard (UK): 0800 964 767

Mastercard (International.): +1-636-722-7111

Visa (US + Can): 1 800 847 2911 / 1-800-VISA-911

Visa (AUS): 1 800 125 440

Visa (UK) : 0800 891 725 or use their international call collect +1 303 967 1096

Visa (International): (call collect - it costs them $): +1-303-967-1096

PayPal (US): 1-888-221-1161

PayPal (UK): 0800 358 7911 from landline, +44 203 901 7000 mobile

PayPal (International): 1-402-935-2050

(numbers gathered from these posts X X X )

Don't know what to say on the phone? Here's a script written by timidtanuki:

Creators have had their work removed off Itch.io with no warning and since it's been removed for 'breaking the rules' (rules that were suddenly in place with no warning) they aren't entitled to get their payouts. Just like other sites such as Youtube and Twitch and Etsy, Itch.io hold onto money from their users in a wallet and then give them payouts. So there is money creators have made, are owed, that Itch.io is not giving to them.

People are recommending that if you still have works on Itch.io to turn down the revenue sharing to 0% so that Itch.io no longer takes a cut or your money if you no longer want to support Itchi.io finically but don't want to remove your works from their platform. X

Other Bluesky posts and calls to action I've seen:

radiantg.bsky.social is asking for anyone on Itch.io who got their game deindexed, removed , or payouts turned off to reach out to them (espeically if you make explicit and/or LGBT+ games) for a piece of journalism about what is happening.

sleepyhard.bsky.social is making a threat of all the games that Itch.io has censored/removed from their site search function. Obviously be aware this will include 18+ only games, games with sexual content and other dark or heavy themes.

thetransfemininereview.com wants you to reach out to them if you're a trans creator on Itch.io who is being affected by this so they can make an accurate report. they say 'authors' in their post and I'm unsure if they also want game devs to reach out.

dropdownbear.bsky.com wants you to reach out if you have purchased things on Itch.io that you can now no longer access because of this ban. they can include them in a report being filed with the Australian Consumer Commission as this may be a violation of Australian Consumer rights. If you are Australian you can no longer access things you purchased of Itch.io you can report directly with this guide.

It's a scary time for adult creators and sex workers. It's a scary time to be trans. Support creators. And if anyone knows of any alternate payment providers that allow explicit work, and/or alternate websites to Itch (and in case things get worse, also give me Patreon alternates please) where people can host, sell and/or offer paid subscriptions to writing, images, videos, audios, games and more please leave them in the replies. And please help share this post, the posts I'm linking too, and any other resources you can find.

1966 is a WIP interactive, text-based cosmic horror game where YOU play as the eldritch cosmic entity. Rating: 18+ | Genres: Cosmic Horror, Lovecraftian, Supernatural, Mystery, Dark Romance In 1966, the world is ending. And you are not who—or what—you seem. PLAY THE DEMO HERE In 1966, the world is ending. And in 1966, you find yourself inexplicably inhabiting an unknown to you human body, stuck in a gloomy little town on a mist-shrouded island in the middle of nowhere. You are something ancient, something vast, a cosmic entity wearing human flesh. But why here? And why now?

FEATURES

Create and customize your character: choose their physical appearance, clothing, gender, and sexuality.

Make choices that influence your personality, morality, and relationships.

Wield otherworldly abilities or rely on the limited strengths of your human host.

Define your personality through the choices you make and the actions you take.

Use your eldritch powers or the skills inherited from your human host.

Find love, forge friendships, or make enemies with four gender-selectable characters.

Embrace your true nature as a cosmic being, or learn what it means to be human.

Will you end the world, save it, or reshape it in your own image?

Make decisions that shape your personality and influence those around you.

Join a cult, destroy a cult, lead a cult, or become the god they worship.

Just a heads up, there are bots going around on AO3 accusing people of using AI. Considering the timing, this is likely AI bros' retaliation for AO3 users calling them out for scraping their work. Examples of what you might be sent:

Screenshots from here.

It wasn’t coming from a “this is amoral” standpoint it was “unaware ace unable to comprehend why anyone sees this as entertainment” which probably doesn’t sound better?

But I remember my friend at the time—who I much later came to accept and understand was deeply abusive—giving me such a look and went off on a condescending rant scolding me about censorship and how all fics have a right to exist, etc.

Now that I’m older I appreciate the freedom of sites like Ao3, especially as it archives fic genres I can’t stand. It wasn’t anything to do with that friend, but every now and then I remember that exchange, not for what she said, but how she said it.

Anyway point being: A reminder for whenever you’re trying to convince the opposition to consider your viewpoint—don’t be a condescending twit about it. And OP isn’t, of course, but I know there’s contrarians all over the place on here who might see this.

That friend didn’t make me change my ways overnight, she didn’t educate me at all because I was so caught up on ‘this person thinks I’m a shallow pearl-clutching idiot’ and her nasty disposition, that I wanted to dig my heels in harder and just stop including her in my fandom interests. To this day, I’m very wary of sharing both what fandoms I’m in, and my thoughts on those fandoms with anyone, because I’m constantly bracing for ridicule, because of her.

A few months ago, I had a conservative-leaning friend caught up on the “but the p*dos!” argument and was all in on morality policing—they’re in a fandom with a very popular kid-adult ship that they find abhorrent. I don’t know this fandom and I don’t care.

They were pretty convincing to the point where I did give merit to the idea that dead doves with “problematic” content bring awareness to that content that readers might otherwise never know about, perpetuating the existence of these relationship tropes because more people read about them when they were previously blissfully unaware and then it spreads oh no think of the children.

And then I stopped and remembered that that is not my fucking problem.

Yeah, kids are going to stumble across shit they shouldn’t. Ao3 doesn’t have an age restriction and even if it did, you could just lie about your age and no one would know.

It’s their parents’ jobs to educate them about internet safety, and set up appropriate guardrails on their internet access, and to teach them the difference between “this is fiction” and “this is a healthy depiction of romance” not some random fanfic writer a continent away who has no idea this kid exists.

It’s no different than a kid walking into a library and picking up an adult romance novel and sitting in a corner to read it—if they can understand the prose, they can understand the sign that says ‘ADULT’. If it’s clearly in the adult fiction section, the library has done its job.

If you’re old enough to comprehend the contents of an explicit smut fic, you are old enough to comprehend the warnings that come before it.

Fanfic has always been “reader beware”. FFN didn’t have a tagging system and that wouldn’t have saved it, but it sure would have helped prepare readers for what they were walking into. Ao3 does. Beware the tags, readers. Appropriately tag your content, authors.

Moon ver + Original

Mr. Scarletella:

Mr. Сrawling:

Mr. Machete:

My hand slipped... Close ups and a little suggestive joke under the cut

always a bloody mess? ✅

will not hesitate on killing you? ✅

has a monster cock? ✅

silly doofus with a knife :3? ✅

mean asf to certain people... or everyone actually lol? ✅